The Visibility Forecast for Today is...

Is your credit union's brand visible? TV ads, print ads, direct mail, blogs; all of these things aim to do one thing, make your brand visible to the people in your community. Whether that community is a small town or a nation, it is all about being visible to the people who might be looking for your service. For most credit unions, we are looking to be visible within our specific field of membership and connect with our members and potential members.

Blogging and other web2.0 efforts have the potential to connect credit unions to their members, but it isn’t for everybody. Whether it’s too new and untested or your membership just doesn’t fall into what I consider “the blogging demographic”, you can still find the world of blogging useful. Not only can credit unions find value in blogs themselves, but they can also take lessons from the blogging world that apply outside the electronic world.

The single best piece of advice I can offer to anybody starting a blog (for any reason) is, participate. The single best way to get a blog noticed is to participate in discussion. Make comments on blogs in your niche. Be a part of the community.

The same goes for getting your credit union noticed in your local community. The best way to get your name out, let people know what you do, and how you are different, is to participate. Get involved with your community.

It’s not even just about raising money for charity or performing community service. There is so much activity going on in most places. Most of it gets overlooked more often than not. That’s a shame.

Softball leagues, school clubs, sports teams looking for sponsorship; they all offer us the opportunity to get involved, participate, and bring our name to the community. There are opportunities all around us in our communities to be a part of those activities. Whether its by actually forming a softball team to compete in a local league or sponsoring a local robotics club at a highschool in your field of membership, there is a constant flow of events begging for participation, why shouldn’t we be there with the people we serve.

What has your credit union done to participate within your local community? I’d love to hear your stories.

Very Small Business

I've always been interested in business. It probably ranks 3rd on my list of interests, right behind music and computers. My first foray into "very small business" was a lemonade stand my brother and I set up just outside my house when I was around 11 or 12. Not exactly worthy of being listed on the NYSE, but hey, I tried.

Several of my friends also attempted their own money making schemes as kids. These included mowing lawns, shoveling show, raking leaves, etc. All the cliche "very small businesses" we ran when we were young and looking for a few bucks.

This question is directed at everyone, but especially to those of you that have kids around 8-14. Do kids still do this stuff? Are there still groups of early teens/tweens that work for their summer spending money?

The reason I ask is because I had an idea while laying in bed with the flu. What if the credit union struck up a relationship with a few middle schools in the local area? We could run a small class on starting one of these little summer businesses. Teach kids at a younger age the very basics of business. Income, expenses, and profit could all be addressed in a very strait forward way.

Reaching Gen-Y is all about creating a relationship. Helping kids make a few bucks over the summer could be a great way to get your name out there, not only with the students, but with their parents as well.

Its educational, involved, and targeted to an early age, but also dependent on whether or not these kinds of "very small businesses" still happen. So, help me out, is this something that could work or is the "very small business" a relic of the past?